Philadelphia Union: Midfielder Torres coming into his own

PHILADELPHIA — Part of the first offseason of John Hackworth’s head coaching career with the Philadelphia Union was spent taking stock.

After last year’s disastrous season, there was some looking back. There was inventory — of what he inherited from his predecessor and what he felt necessary as reinforcements. Hackworth took time, to a man, to explain what he expected from each of his players as participants in his vision of the club’s future.

For some players — like soon-to-be-former Union midfielder Freddy Adu — those discussions revealed irreconcilable differences. For another promising midfielder of yesteryear, though, the offseason conversation was a welcomed dose of tough love.

“We threw down the gauntlet to Roger (Torres) at the end-of-the-year meetings,” Hackworth said last week as the Union opened training camp. “And very honestly, we told Roger you either come back to preseason fit and prepared and ready to meet the demands or you’re not going to be a part to the team. To his credit, Roger came in the door ready. His fitness is the best I’ve ever seen in four years. His mentality and approach is different. I think Roger senses that this is his time to really take this opportunity.”

Advertisement

After a season riddled with inconsistency and injury, Torres looks ready to claim something from what looked to be the ashes of his career in Philadelphia. He’s been granted a second chance in his fourth season with the team, one that he appreciates and is ready to capitalize on.

“I want to forget everything about (last season),” Torres said Monday after a workout at the NovaCare Complex. “I’m in good health now. I’m practicing hard to get a chance to play for this team, and I’m going to do everything to get that opportunity.”

Torres represents the only contiguous link to the starting XI that former coach Peter Nowak assembled for the team’s inaugural game March 25, 2010. (Sebastien Le Toux was also in that lineup, but he spent last season playing for Vancouver and New York.)

The spritely Colombian midfielder made 31 appearances that year, including 21 starts, assisting on six goals. The following season, he made 34 appearances, scoring three times for the Union’s first and only playoff-qualifying squad. He was a key facet to those teams, a play-making midfielder with an incisive edge to his game and a constant threat on free kicks — precisely the kind of presence the offense-starved Union side was crying out for last season.

But Torres managed just 11 appearances in 2012 through a combination of a nagging knee injury and the regime-change tumult. The concerns behind the scenes were more pressing, though. Torres wasn’t known as the most dedicated player on the training ground. At 5-5, 137 pounds, he could be tossed around like a cork by more physical midfielders at times. As good as he was with the ball in his feet, his work rate to get possession was sometimes suspect. And it was all too easy to peg him as a relic of the disgraced Nowak era.

Minus the stats and the measurables, it’s a description that fits Adu as well. But when taken to task by Hackworth in the offseason, Torres took the road less traveled by so many pro athletes. So far, it’s made all the difference.

“We’re very pleased because I think this is the first preseason Roger came in and was fit enough to participate from the get-go,” Hackworth said Tuesday at his weekly press conference. “I thought in the past Roger has come in and struggled with his fitness and has had to catch up a lot during the first two weeks of preseason. That wasn’t a problem for him this year, and we made it very clear that that wasn’t going to be allowed. To see him come in and be prepared to go after it from day one has been good.”

Hackworth has seen enough in preseason training to voice optimism as to the role Torres may play this season, calling him “really important to our team”. On the pitch, Torres seems to be getting the message about being a more complete, two-way player.

“(Hackworth) always tries to tell me that I’ve got to pressure sometimes more when I have to defend,” Torres said, “because he says, when you have the ball, you’re so good. But you’ve got to work a lot when you don’t have the ball. That’s the thing that he always tells me.”

The midfield shapes up as one that could use a player of Torres’ talents. Hackworth’s early-season workouts have featured Amobi Okugo and Brian Carroll, both largely defensive-minded players, in the middle of a 4-3-3 formation along with 2012 MLS All-Star Michael Farfan. Farfan may not be easily dislodged, but Torres looks like one of the front runners for a regular role as an attacking sub for someone like Okugo late in games.

Torres has also picked up on the prevailing message of the team: That there’s little to salvage from last season as the team collectively tries to put it behind them.

“I felt so bad outside looking at the things during the games,” Torres said. “I think last year we had a good team, but sometimes things that happen in the season frustrated our team. But I think that we’re going to leave that outside, we’re going to leave that year in the past and we’re going to think about where we’re going and the future.”